Christopher Lehmpfuhl & Natela Iankoshvili – Reise nach Georgien

Galerie Kornfeld is pleased to present a two-person exhibition of paintings by Natela Iankoshvili and Christopher Lehmpfuhl. This exhibition looks at Georgia as a site of inspiration for two strong artists coming from radically different positions: a contemporary male painter who was born and still lives in Berlin, Germany, works on the spot in a country he has never visited before, and paints there with his hands, en plein air. And a strong woman, who was born and lived in Georgia from 1918 to 2007, and who can be regarded as the most notable Georgian female artist of the 20th century, paints the landscapes of her home country in her own, unique style, with powerful brushstrokes set on a dark background.

To produce the works for this exhibition, 

Christopher Lehmpfuhl (born 1972) was invited by Galerie Kornfeld on a journey to Georgia, accompanied by gallery director Mamuka Bliadze, who served as a guide and confidant to the artist as he painted images along the Georgian countryside and in the capital Tbilisi in his signature style—hands in oil paint, executed on the spot, in heat and cold, sun, rain, and wind.

Christopher Lehmpfuhl painted the sites of the Caucasus, including Mount Kazbeg, a sleeping volcano and one of the highest mountains of Georgia; Jvari Monastery; and Svetitskhoveli Cathedral—sites that illustrate Georgia’s rich and century-old history. He also painted in Sighnaghi, a well-known town in the wine-growing region of Kakheti, and finally in Tbilisi, the capital: a vibrant, modern city on one hand and a city with its own long history on the other.

The creative process of Lehmpfuhl’s painting is rooted in the conditions of the materiality of paint and his memory of painting his surrounding scenery. Following from a psychological and phenomenological set of ideas about perception that emerged alongside late 19th-century Impressionism and early Proto-Expressionism, Lehmpfuhl’s paintings connect the sense of matter to the immediacy and expanded condition of the mind that is simultaneously sensing and imagining it, to the perceived interior image that is formed in the act of first viewing a chosen motif.

The process begins as a percept or mental image that is imagined and memorized and thereafter enacted through the artist’s active finger-painting procedures on the spot, or, as the artist says:

“I have a memory or idea before I start; this is a sort of sketch in my head.”

Through heavy impasto marks in oil paint and large-scale canvases, the surface of Lehmpfuhl’s paintings tells as much of a story of their making as the images they depict. Hence the Georgian landscapes and architectural subject paintings, while filtered through the focused perception of the artist, remain selected as recognizable landscape locations.

Female artist Natela Iankoshvili (1918–2007) was an iconic artist in her home country of Georgia. Even today, many regard her work as a national treasure. Her paintings are known for their moody, luscious, colorful quality depicting landscapes of her home country as well as portraits of friends and community members. She was a prolific artist, creating more than 2,000 works over the course of her life.

Iankoshvili’s recognizable style is characterized by dark blacks and greens, with gleaming moments of light erupting out of a field of darkness. A relationship to the paintings of the Blauer Reiter can be found, as well as reminiscences of artists as diverse as Niko Pirosmani, El Greco, and Paul Gauguin.

In her landscape paintings, powerful forms—confidently outlined with only a few brushstrokes on a black background—merge into vividly colored images. Figures and landscapes burst into bloom on the dark ground. Tones and colors gradually shade into one another, creating hazy forms that feel as if they are moving across the surface of the canvas.

Christopher Lehmpfuhl’s impressions of the landscape of Georgia—a land foreign to him—shift the paradigm of Georgia as seen through Natela Iankoshvili’s lens. Through explorations of foreignness and the contexts that proximity or distance from home can create, Iankoshvili and Lehmpfuhl portray the Georgian landscape from two distinct positions. From this dual engagement, the exhibition asks: What new things become visible when observing another’s home through painting?From Iankoshvili’s homeland as a site of investigation to Lehmpfuhl’s works as a kind of travel journal filtered through his hands, the exhibition presents Georgia as a site of discovery.

Christopher Lehmpfuhl, a former master student of Klaus Fußmann at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, has received numerous awards, including a scholarship from the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and the GASAG Art Award Berlin. For the 20th anniversary of Germany’s reunification in 2009, he was commissioned to paint all 16 federal states of Germany. His works have been shown widely in museums and galleries in Germany and abroad, most recently at the Marburger Kunstverein.

Natela Iankoshvili studied at the Art Academy in Tbilisi and exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Georgia, the Soviet Union, and internationally. She received several awards, including the Shota Rustaveli Prize, Georgia’s most prestigious art award. Her works are held in major collections such as the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow and the National Gallery of Tbilisi.

From 3–6 May 2018, Galerie Kornfeld will present works by Natela Iankoshvili at Frieze New York, marking the first presentation of her work in the United States.

An 88-page book, published by Wienand Verlag, featuring an introduction by Mamuka Bliadze, an art-historical essay by British art historian Mark Gisbourne, and color reproductions of all paintings created by Christopher Lehmpfuhl during his journey to Georgia, will be launched on Thursday, 24 May 2018, at 6 pm at Galerie Kornfeld.